Day 30, Apr. 29 Crossing the Potomac

30042012

Day 30, Apr. 29 Crossing the Potomac

We left very early this morning and had a long day on the water,(about 80 miles). There was a storm last night but we were secure at our dock.

Forgot to mention that when we were coming into Portsmouth Harbour we were hailed by a sailboat on our starboard side: it was our friends from Key West! We hadn’t seen them since our second day travelling through the Keys, and here they were at Mile 0 ! We congratulated each other on making it this far.

The conditions were perfect for our northern trek up the Western side of the Chesapeake. The sun shone and we hardly saw any traffic on the water. This bay is 20 to 30 miles wide in places so you can’t see the other side most of the time. It reminds us of Lake Ontario because of its width and length, about 200 miles,(it even has bluffs). But unlike Lake Ontario, the Chesapeake has 1700 rivers that flow into it. We crossed the mouth of many of them today; the James River that leads to Jamestown, America’s first permanent settlement established in 1607, the York River, that leads to Yorktown, where the last major battle of the Revolutionary war ended with Cornwallis surrendering to Washington, and of course, the Potomac, where 90 miles up brings you to the nation’s capital.

Tonight we’re at a very quiet anchorage at Solomans Island in the Petuxent River.